The Forgotten Birthday
by thebluevalentine
Summary: Happy birthday, Peter!" Well, that's not exactly what happened. In fact, nothing happened at all! Did they forget about him? Main character: Peter Pettigrew, Marauder's Era.


_This is a little something I wrote for a good friend of mine, who happens to have a birthday today! Happy birthday, Jeshua-kun x3_

**The Forgotten Birthday**

He knew it would happen… Any minute now something would attack him, or explode next to him, and he wondered whether or not he could withstand another hit. He waited silently for a few moments, listening with intense focus for any kind of giveaway noise: the enemy was out there. He just didn't know where.

He closed his eyes before counting down from three and flinging the sheets over his head. Blocking any attack that might be headed his way, he waited for another second. But none came. He opened his eyes and blinked in the bright sunlight. He took a look around the room: It was empty. All of the red four-poster beds (except for his own) had been abandoned, and lay neatly made in their usual circular arrangement. Under them there were no strange boxes, just a few trunks marked SB, JP, and RL respectively. The nightstands were untouched, and the belongings that sat atop their dark brown surfaces were intact, not a single scratch to be found or item overturned. Peter eyed the room once more before slinking out of bed, into his robes, and heading as quietly as he could down into the Gryffindor Common Room. Even then, he didn't let his guard down. His enemy knew this was the one perfect day to attack him: his birthday.

Even the Common Room – usually bustling with activity – was eerily empty, not a soul in sight.

_This is weird…_ Peter thought as he made his way over to the exit and headed towards the Great Hall. _Normally they would have done SOMETHING by now, but I haven't seen anyone at all…_

He made his way down a few flights of stairs and got his first glimpse of someone, but it turned out to only be a Slytherin, and he didn't think it would be wise to get into a mess this early. He reached the Hall without seeing anyone else, and he began to worry that maybe he was still dreaming – but he noticed the unmistakable sounds of people talking, and he knew he wasn't. He entered the Hall and spotted his friends a few feet away at their house table, and took his usual seat next to Remus.

"Morning, guys." He said, wondering if they would say anything back. But it was more than likely they didn't hear him at all.

"Sirius, why didn't you just do this when you were supposed to?" Remus was saying to an annoyed-looking Sirius, who was bowed low over a paper entitled: _The Uses of Polyjuice Potions. _

"Well, MUM," Sirius replied smartly, "if I had just done it when I was supposed to, I wouldn't have been able to do the other, more important things that often occupy my time."

"What could you possibly have had to do on a Friday evening, Sirius? Never mind, I don't want to know… Look, its Sunday now. You had the whole weekend to do this assignment for Professor Slughorn and you wasted it playing pranks with James."

"Which, like I said, was one of the things I consider more important than essays. Besides, I know all of this stuff anyway…" He scratched out a misspelled word and waved a stray piece of his jet black hair out of his eyes before sighing heavily and turning back to his Potion's book.

James merely laughed at his friend's predicament. He reached into his own bag and pulled out his essay - which was two full pages longer than Sirius' – and held it up for everyone to see.

"Padfoot, come on. Even I did the work; there was nothing stopping you from doing it with me." James had a smirk on his face as he ran a hand through his dark brown hair without the slightest change in attitude. Sirius glared at him, but said nothing and returned to his paper.

"Morning, guys." Peter repeated, louder this time. This time he got his responses, but not quite the ones he had expected.

"Hey, Wormtail."

"Morning."

"Yep."

"What's up?" he asked curiously. It seemed as though they'd forgotten about today, but he wanted to make sure.

"Nothing." James replied. He put his head on the table and began to "snore." "I don't think we have anything to do today anyway…"

Peter tried again. "What's today?"

"Sunday, Peter." Sirius mumbled from behind his book.

"Oh yeah…" _I guess they really have forgotten…_

The four of them soon finished their breakfasts and decided to head out onto the grounds. It was sunny and reasonably cool for the time of year, and they chose their favorite spot under one of the trees near the lake to spend the better part of the day at. The Giant Squid swam near one of its far edges, creating ripples on the otherwise mirror-like surface of the water. In the opposite direction, a few girls were flying a kite, and a group of boys stood a few feet away, yelling encouragement.

To Peter, today was a special day, but apparently to his friends it meant nothing. He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in them. He lay down in the grass and stared blankly up into the trees branches, the rays of sunlight that were able to get past the leaves making spots and patterns on his cheeks. The others proceeded with their usual routine: Remus had taken out a book and was reading, and James and Sirius were talking aimlessly about anything, everything, and everyone. No one seemed to even notice him lying there, and for a while, the four of them just sat in silence before –

"Alright, I guess I'll head back to the Tower now." Sirius said suddenly, standing up and disturbing the silence. He didn't wait for them to say goodbye, and he left without another word. James and Remus didn't seem all that surprised though, Peter noted. Normally, Sirius would have been hammered with questions as to why he was leaving so abruptly, but he had left without so much as the slightest acknowledgment from the others. But Peter decided to merely shrug it off: after all, today had been a pretty weird day from the start, so this was probably nothing to worry about...

Soon, Remus had followed Sirius' example and he too had left, leaving only Peter and James left. This was when Peter started to ask questions.

"Hey," he asked carefully. "Is there something going on?"

James looked confused. "No, why?"

"Well everyone is going inside all of a sudden. You didn't even say bye to Sirius." Peter watched James intensely, looking for any giveaway sign, but none came.

James merely shrugged. "I don't know. If anything's going on, I couldn't tell you." However, the classic look of mischief flashed across his eyes and he suddenly added, "Why don't we go and find out then?"

xXx

The hallway leading to the Fat Lady's portrait was eerily quiet. Just like it had been the morning before, there was not a soul in sight, and Peter was beginning to wonder whether or not this was all just a big joke. James hadn't said anything the entire walk up, but he continually checked his watch as if making sure they reached a deadline.

_It's probably going to be a big prank, huh… _Peter thought to himself. _Great, they're going to embarrass me in front of everyone, I just know it. I'm that gullible, it only makes sense…_

But a part of him knew that this was untrue. His friends would probably never do something like that to him. Still, he had seen them do it to Snape enough times to know that they had the skills to pull anything off… He followed James through the darkened corridor, through the entrance to their common room and closed his eyes in anticipation of the prank that was sure to befall him…

"Surprise!"

Peter opened his eyes and felt his jaw drop. The common room had been filled with party decorations, and scattered around the tables were boxes and bags of various size, shape, and color. Above his head there was a banner that read "Happy Birthday Peter" and all of his friends now sat laughing at his amazed expression. It looked like they hadn't forgotten his birthday, he thought happily. Although… They _had_ succeeded in embarrassing him in front of everyone….

The party lasted well into the night. So late in fact that Professor McGonagall had to tell them to go to sleep. But even then the excitement refused to die down. From the empty common room - now filled with empty wrappers and bottles, the floor coated in a thin layer of playing cards and the banner that now acted as a blanket hanging over the couch – there could still be heard the noise of the evening.

"Hey!" cried Peter! "Give that back!"

"Mine now!" Sirius said back, laughing.

"Sirius, just give it back to him!" Remus interjected.

Sirius sighed. "Yes, MUM…"


End file.
